
Sierra, an AI startup focused on enterprise solutions and co-founded by OpenAI Chairman Bret Taylor and former Google executive Clay Bavor, is reportedly close to achieving unicorn status through a new funding round. Sequoia Capital is expected to lead an $85 million investment, valuing Sierra at nearly $1 billion, according to an anonymous source cited by Bloomberg. The AI industry, buoyed by the success of OpenAI's ChatGPT, has been drawing significant attention and capital from global investors, sparking increased interest in AI ventures and projects for their growth potential. Sierra, despite recently emerging from stealth mode, has gained substantial traction in the market. The co-founders aim to apply AI to address crucial business challenges.
Taylor, who joined the OpenAI board after the CEO changes, was previously the co-CEO at Salesforce and played a notable role in Elon Musk's Twitter takeover in 2022. Bavor, a former Google manager, led the virtual reality unit before co-founding Sierra in March, as per his LinkedIn profile. In a similar trend, French AI startup Mistral AI, founded by researchers from Google and Meta, raised $415 million in December, reaching a valuation of around $2 billion. Mistral AI specializes in open-source software for chatbots and generative AI tools, gaining prominence in the European AI startup space.
On the same day, reports surfaced that Elon Musk's AI startup, xAI, is in talks with investors worldwide to raise $6 billion in funding at a proposed valuation of $20 billion. Musk launched xAI in June, and the startup introduced its chatbot named Grok in November, according to the Financial Times.
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